There’s nowhere quite like Venice. A city suspended between water, memory, and time. As the setting for the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, it becomes more than just a location; it becomes part of the narrative. This year’s edition, titled Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., curated by Carlo Ratti, invites a profound exploration of how architecture can meet today’s global challenges through intersections with nature, technology, and collective intelligence.
Walking through the Arsenale and Giardini, one is met not just with visual marvels, but with spaces that ask something of you emotionally, intellectually, and sensorially. From Serbia’s textile-laden Unraveling installation by Slobodan Jović to Kosovo’s haunting Emerging Assemblages by Erzë Dinarama, these works don’t merely impress. They pause you. They ask you to reflect, to feel, to question. As I always say, good design should do just that.
This year, materiality also stood out in striking ways. From algorithmically optimized structures to installations using repurposed and natural elements, sustainability is no longer a separate theme. It’s embedded into the design language. The Elephant Chapel by Boonserm Premthada and the Canal Café by Diller Scofidio + Renfro exemplified this beautifully. So did SO-IL’s Necto, a suspended, bio-textile canopy that felt simultaneously digital and organic—an embodiment of softness engineered through algorithmic precision. It offered a moment of quiet contemplation under a membrane that seemed to breathe with the wind.
Another favorite: The Shape of Things to Come by Formafantasma, nestled in Carlo Scarpa’s Negozio Olivetti. The studio’s critique of e-waste and planned obsolescence became almost spiritual in that setting—layered, quiet, and deeply confrontational. The contrast between Scarpa’s brutalist poetry and Formafantasma’s forensic minimalism was nothing short of genius.
Then come the national pavilions, always a personal favorite. Through Peru’s Living Scaffolding and Bahrain’s Heatwave, we’re offered glimpses into emotional, political, and cultural dialogues. All framed through the theme of intelligences. Each pavilion feels like walking through a different mind, a different future.
What I love most about the Biennale is its ability to evolve. It reminds us that design isn’t static. It’s relational, systemic, and filled with questions. And in a place like Venice, every canal, shadow, and structure feels like an echo of that same truth: that good design, like the city itself, holds space for complexity, contradiction, and beauty.
Here is a recap of my favorites:
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Elephant Chapel by Boonserm Premthada
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Canal Café by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
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Necto by SO–IL
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The Shape of Things to Come by Formafantasma
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Peru’s Living Scaffolding
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Bahrain’s Heatwave
—Marcela